Choose the searches that matter

Businesses often describe themselves one way, while their customers search in a completely different way. A company calls itself a “heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor”. Its customer, standing in a hot kitchen, types “air conditioning repair near me”.

Google can only match you to the words people actually use. So in this lesson, we’re going to find those words.

By the end, you’ll have a list of ten to twenty real searches, with the three to five that matter most starred. Those are the searches we’ll track for the rest of the course.

Start with the words customers use when they call you. Not your trade terms, and not the words on your price list. Theirs. What do people say in the first ten seconds of a call? “My boiler’s making a funny noise.” “Can I get my nails done today?” “Do you do emergency appointments?”

And check your country, because the words change. In the UK, “solicitor near me” is searched about five times as often as “lawyer near me”. In Australia, it’s the other way round. Americans search most for a “realtor”, British people for an “estate agent”, and Australians for a “real estate agent”. And in the UK, people look for a “garage”, while in the US and Australia, “mechanic” comes first.

So don’t guess. Let Google show you.

Step one. On your phone, start typing your main service into Google, slowly, and watch the list that drops down under the search box. Google calls these “predictions”. It says they reflect real searches people have done, and that they change with the location and the language of the search. They aren’t a list of the most popular searches, so treat them as ideas.

Try your service on its own, then with your town, then with words like “emergency”, “cost” or “open now”. Write down every one a real customer of yours might type.

Step two. Search for your main service, and scroll down. For many local searches, Google shows a box of questions called “People also ask”, and another box called “People also search for”.

These tell you what customers worry about before they call. When we checked “emergency plumber” in Denver, Bristol and Brisbane in October 2026, the questions were about price, trust, and what counts as an emergency. Write down the ones that fit your business. You’ll use them again when we work on your services and your website.

Step three is the best source of all, if you can sign in to your profile: the words people actually typed before they found you. On a computer, open your Business Profile, click “Performance”, and find “Searches”. In the Google Maps app, tap “Business”, then “See more” next to Performance.

You copied the top five in the last lesson. Now read further down. Which searches surprise you? Which of your services never appear? And remember, this list updates at the start of each month.

Step four: put it all together on page W2 of your workbook. Most local searches are built from three parts: a service, a place, and a need.

The service is what they want: “boiler repair”, “dentist”, “gel nails”. The place is “near me”, or a town, suburb or neighbourhood. And the need is the extra word that says how urgent or specific it is: “emergency”, “same day”, “open Sunday”, “for kids”.

Mix and match, and keep only what a real customer would type. “Emergency plumber near me.” “Same-day boiler repair Leeds.” Aim for ten to twenty lines. And one tip: you don’t need to stuff “near me” into your profile. Google already works out how far each business is from the person searching.

Now star three to five priority searches. A good priority search does three things. It brings in work you want, at a price that pays. It’s true for what your business really is. And real customers use it: it showed up in your predictions, your question boxes or your own searches list.

These are the searches you’ll track every month, and the ones you’ll check again in your re-score at the end of the course.

A quick rules check. Use these words where they belong: in your services, naturally in your description, on your website and in your posts. Never add them to your business name. Google says unnecessary information in a business name isn’t permitted, and could get your profile suspended. And never ask customers to use your keywords in their reviews. Google’s policy says businesses shouldn’t ask for specific content.

Let’s recap. One: start from your customers' words, and check the words people use in your country. Two: use three free sources: Google’s predictions, the question boxes, and the searches list in your Performance report. Three: star three to five priority searches, and use them everywhere except your business name.

Your task: fill in page W2 of your workbook with ten to twenty real searches, and star your three to five priorities. Then try the five-question Module 1 quiz on the lesson page.

That’s Module 1 done. In Module 2, we start work on your Google Business Profile, beginning with the most important step: making sure it’s really yours.